History Main / ContractualBossImmunity

Unrelated to JokerImmunity. Compare SNKBoss, which is a type of Boss for {{Fighting Game}}s that ''really'' breaks the rules.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'', on Maddening difficulty, bosses tend to have either the Unbreakable skill (immune to break) or the Veteran+ skill (immune to break and nullifies effective damage).

** In melee matches against human opponents, The Heroic attribute and the Frenzied passive trait confer limited immunity. The Protoss Mothership boasts the Heroic attribute which grants it immunity to MindControl effects (Neural Parasites), while Ultralisks has the same immunity plus an immunity to snares, stuns, and movement altering effects with the Frenzied passive.

** In melee matches against human opponents, The Heroic attribute and the Frenzied passive trait confer limited immunity. The Protoss Mothership boasts the Heroic attribute which grants it immunity to MindControl effects (Neural Parasites), while Ultralisks and Broodlords have the same immunity as well with their Frenzied passive.

* In the final mission of ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' Kerrigan only takes up at 10 damage points from ''any'' single attack, even a shot from a WaveMotionGun or a nuclear blast. Hence the only way to kill her is, ironically, [[ZergRush rush her]] [[DeathOfAThousandCuts with a ton]] of [[RedShirt marines]]. And even then she respawns.
** There is -one- exception to this rule, the Ghost unit's "Snipe" attack, but because of branching paths in the storyline, there's no guarantee the player will have this option available.

* Brought up as a plot point in ''LightNovel/DeathMarchToTheParallelWorldRhapsody'', where in one episode, Satou is trapped inside of a Labyrinth by a Demon Lord; who could only be defeated if it's killed by a [[HolyBurnsEvil Holy Sword]]; which Satou has. But the only ones who could wield Holy Swords are those who possess the Title of "[[TheHero Hero]]"; Which Satou doesn't have. However, Satou quickly [[LoopholeAbuse deduces]] that since Demon Lords are classified as [[AGodAmI "Near God"-Tier Entities]]: they can be defeated alternatively by a "[[KillTheGod God-Killer]]" wielding a [[InfinityPlusOneSword Divine Sword]]: Both of which Satou possesses, which he uses to vanquish the Demon Lord [[spoiler:and coincidentally earning him the "Hero" Title as a result]].

* The [[VideoGameRemake REMake]] of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'':
** You can find the Self-Defense Pistol, a .22 magnum derringer that [[OnlyWorksOnce can only be fired once]] but will down any enemy in one single hit. Bosses are the exception of course, with it instead doing about the same damage as one of Barry's .44 magnum rounds. Granted this is still a significant amount of damage, making the weapon helpful in fighting the Black Tiger or Yawn, but don't expect it to take them down in one hit. In fact, it was actually deliberately coded to not be able to one-shot a "boss" type monster, even if its damage output is higher than the boss's health, instead doing a HPTo1 effect.
** Subverted with the Crimson Head Prototype 1, one of two mandatory [[DemonicSpider Crimson Heads]] encountered and the only one that you actually have to fight. Even with its massively balloned health compared to regular Crimson Heads (having between 2300 and 5200 depending on the difficulty, compared to a regular one which has between 300 and 2600) it's still as vulnerable to [[OneHitKO lucky headshots]] as any other zombie. One very easy way to kill him, at least as Chris, is to let the bastard grab you and use a flash grenade which will instantly kill him without wasting a single bullet.

* The final boss of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' cannot be killed with the rocket launcher. He needs a special ''red'' rocket launcher, which you receive after you pummel him with regular weapons for a while.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', Nemesis is encountered seven times, and no matter ''what'' Jill does to defeat him, he won't die, or even stay down long, the first six times. He can only be killed permanently the seventh time, in the FinalBattle.

* ''[[VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return]]'': Crow Harbor’s dreadnought, the Imperium, is completely immune to all status effects. You can't shut down his DeflectorShields, you can't [[TheParalyzer disable him]], and you can't lower his accuracy or evasion. If you ''try'' to do any of these things to him, he will literally laugh at you.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' all generic enemies are vulnerable to your Hidden Blade (and in particular to being [[CounterAttack counter]] [[OneHitKill killed]]), but the penultimate and final boss are conveniently immune.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGear'', you can't break bosses' necks, nor can you slit their throats, and the KO is just minor incapacitation.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' plays with this. After a cutscene, Ocelot is unconscious, and you're able to shoot him... but doing so gives you a NonstandardGameOver due to creating a 'time paradox'.

*** BonusBoss Night Terror can't be defeated by a ring out (he can fly).

* ''VideoGame/AdventureQuest'' made a [[MarathonBoss marathon]] BonusBoss immune to elemental-resistance-shuffling after someone figured out that they could use a class ability that dealt percentage-based fire damage, and the monster's 1275% energy weakness, to one hit kill an EldritchAbomination. It dealt ''billions'' of damage.%%See also the ones that are immune to [[OneHitKill Power Word Die]].

** [[LegendaryWeapon Mehrunes' Razor]] has a small chance of insta-killing an opponent with any given strike, up to and including even [[BigBad Alduin]] and the [[BloodKnight Ebony]] [[BonusBoss Warrior]]. However, Miraak, the EvilCounterpart BigBad of the ''Dragonborn'' expansion, and Karstaag, the spirit of the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere from ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'''s ''Bloodmoon'' expansion who can be fought as the BonusBoss of an unmarked quest, are both immune to the insta-kill chance of the Razor.

* In ''VideoGame/NocturneRebirth'', this is only played straight for the second round of the BonusBoss. Every other boss of the game is vulnerable to exactly one or two status effects while being immune to all others.

** ''VideoGame/Persona2: Innocent Sin'' offers the fusion spell Armageddon, which kills ''anything'' including the final boss... except for the BonusBoss. Try it out on him, and he'll smack you back with it. You have to grind like mad to get it, since you need both Lucifer and Satan personas to cast Armageddon and they're far higher level than you'd get just playing the game normally.

* It's very common for BulletHell shooters to have the {{Bonus Boss}}es and/or {{True Final Boss}}es become invincible when the player bombs, taking no damage from the bomb or any of the players shots until the effect of the bomb ends. Generally, a barrier of some sort will be placed around the boss to show when this is occurring, although other things have been known to occur to indicate that the boss simply is not taking any damage (for example in ''VideoGame/EspRaDe'' the boss literally leaves the screen). Sometimes the standard FinalBoss gets this type of invincibility as well when they're on their [[TurnsRed final pattern]]. Creator/{{Cave}} and ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' games are prime examples of this.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' has the Dark Elf, a challenging midgame boss, unless you cast Weak on him, which drops him to single digits. This weakness was removed in the remake. Also, while several bosses ignore or are outright immune to the Poison/Venom spell, the upgraded Bio/Virus spell works on nearly everything (it technically applies the status effect Sap instead of Poison, and almost nothing has Sap immunity). Not only is it useful against nearly every boss, one particular [[BonusBoss bonus]] DualBoss becomes much easier to manage with proper use of it.

*** No enemy is immune to the status effect Vit-0, which causes the enemy to have no physical defense, thus dramatically increasing the effectiveness of Squall's, Zell's, and Irvine's limit breaks. This includes the [[BonusBoss super bosses]] Ultima Weapon and Omega Weapon. And it's relatively easy to get provided you play the card game (the card itself is a low level one) and have the appropriate crafting skill to turn cards into magic spells.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'', while bosses tend to be at least fairly resistant (but not outright immune) to status ailments inflicted by items or psynergy, status ailments inflicted by unleashing Djinn tend to bypass these much easier, if not with full accuracy. You can take down the Storm Lizard by hitting him with Bane and letting him take around 500 hp ''twice per turn'' from the Deadly Poison it inflicts, or seal [[BonusBoss Deadbeard's]] psynergy by hitting him with Luff and reducing him to only a basic physical attack.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestI'', the Dragonlord is ''not'' immune to Sleep/Snooze, as shown in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twbxxr2THzI this video]. However, the low hit rate for Sleep makes this AwesomeButImpractical.